Posts tagged Sierra Madre Oriental

Hundreds of fires can be seen burning in southern Mexico, along the Sierra Madre Oriental and between the mountain range and the Gulf of Mexico Coast. The Sierra Madre breaks down at the Isthmus of Tehuantepec into a broad, plateau-like ridge, by which fires are still visible.

Several plumes of smoke can be seen in Mexico, near both the east and west coasts. The largest plume of smoke is visible in the east, by the mountains of the Sierra Madre Oriental. Although the cause of the fires is not clear here, blazes were reported in both an oil refinery in the eastern state of Tamaulipas and a paper factory at the time the image was captured.

Monterrey, the capital city of the northeastern state of Nuevo León in the country of Mexico, can be seen in the upper left quadrant of this image as a large grey expanse north of the foothills of the Sierra Madre Oriental mountain range.

Visible on the other side of the mountains is Saltillo, the capital and largest city of the northeastern Mexican state of Coahuila and the municipal seat of the municipality of the same name. The city is located about 90 km west of Monterrey, Nuevo León.

Mexico is crossed from north to south by two mountain ranges known as Sierra Madre Oriental and Sierra Madre Occidental, which are the extension of the Rocky Mountains from northern North America. Here, these two ranges can be seen parallel to the coastline. From east to west at the center, the country is crossed by the Trans-Mexican Volcanic Belt also known as the Sierra Nevada. A fourth mountain range, the Sierra Madre del Sur, runs from Michoacán to Oaxaca. As such, the majority of the Mexican central and northern territories are located at high altitudes.

Two large cities can be observed positioned among mountain ridges in northeastern Mexico, just right of the center of this image: Saltillo (just right of center) and Monterrey (slightly northeast of the former). Saltillo is the capital city of the state of Coahuila.

Monterrey is the capital city of the state of Nuevo León, with the second largest metropolitan area in Mexico. It lies north of the foothills of the Sierra Madre Oriental mountain range, east of the Cerro de las Mitras mountain, and west of Cerro de la Silla (Saddle Mountain).